Sir: Pakistan is geographically vulnerable to drug trafficking, sharing a 2,430 km-long, porous border with Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of illicit opium. Pakistan itself has over 1,000 hectares of poppy cultivation, concentrated in the restive FATA region on the border with Afghanistan. Furthermore, cannabis is also produced in large quantities in the sub-region. Most of the cannabis trafficked in the region also originates from Afghanistan and is processed in the inaccessible areas of Pakistan’s FATA region. The ramifications of drug processing and trafficking are felt globally. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) estimates that Pakistan is now the destination and transit country for approximately 40 percent of the opiates produced in Afghanistan. Most processing takes place in small, mobile laboratories in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas although increasing instances of processing on the Afghan border with the Central Asian Republics have been reported. The sub-region itself has become a major consumer market for opiates. Opiate processing on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border have created trafficking. Moreover, heroin users in Pakistan are estimated to consume 20 tonnes of pure heroin annually. Although drug use in Pakistan is a known and increasing problem, credible research into usage and distribution is lacking. SHADANZI SHAD Turbat